1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hangers. More particularly, the present invention relates to garment hangers for use in situations in which more than one hanger is necessary or desirable to display garments with other related garments. The present invention also has applicability to garment hangers for use in transport of garments.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,098 to Bredeweg et al. entitled "Hook Socket for Ganging Hangers," the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a garment hanger having a loop generally indicated as 21 from which a second hanger may be hung. Although useful in certain situations, the Bredeweg hanger suffers from the drawback of not providing entry of the lower hanger in a direction parallel to the face of the upper hanger. As a result, the structure of the Bredeweg hanger may, in use, allow for rotation of the lower hanger. This rotation is undesirable because retailers and others prefer that the lower hanger remain parallel with the upper hanger such that the garments which the hangers support remain neat and aligned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,678 to Blanchard et al. entitled "Ganging Hook for Garment Hangers," the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a garment hanger having a loop generally indicated as 20 from which a second hanger may be hung. Although the Blanchard hanger allows for parallel insertion of the lower hanger, an undesirable snapping or jolting force is required to engage and secure the lower hanger in the loop 20.
Thus, these hangers, while functional, provide less than optimal ease of insertion and retention of the lower hanger hook into the loop of the upper hanger. Moreover, due to the relative complexity of the loop structure of these existing hangers, the manufacturing costs of these hangers are unnecessarily high.